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Institution that never changes. Amid the universal ruins of earthly
monuments she is the one monument that stands proudly pre-eminent. Not a
stone in this building falls to the ground. Amid the general destruction
of kingdoms her kingdom is never destroyed. Ever ancient and ever new,
time writes no wrinkles on her Divine brow.

The Church has seen the birth of every government of Europe, and it is not
at all improbable that she shall also witness the death of them all and
chant their requiem. She was more than fourteen hundred years old when
Columbus discovered our continent, and the foundation of our Republic is
but as yesterday to her.

She calmly looked on while the Goths and the Visigoths, the Huns and the
Saxons swept like a torrent over Europe, subverting dynasties. She has
seen monarchies changed into republics, and republics consolidated into
empires--all this has she witnessed, while her own Divine Constitution has
remained unaltered. Of Her we can truly say in the words of the Psalmist:
"They shall perish, but thou remainest; and all of them shall grow old as
a garment. And as a vesture Thou shalt change them, and they shall be
changed. But thou art always the self-same, and thy years shalt not fail.
The children of thy servants shall continue, and their seed shall be
directed forever."(111) God forbid that we should ascribe to any human
cause this marvellous survival of the Church. Her indestructibility is not
due, as some suppose, to her wonderful organization, or to the
far-reaching policy of her Pontiffs, or to the learning and wisdom of her
teachers. If she has survived, it is not because of human wisdom, but
often in spite of human folly. Her permanence is due not to the arm of the
flesh, but to the finger of God.

In the brightest days of the Republic of Pagan Rome the Roman said with
pride: "I am a Roman citizen." This was his noblest title. He was proud of
the Republic, because it was venerable in years, powerful in the number of
its citizens, and distinguished for the wisdom of its statesmen. What a
subject of greater glory to be a citizen of the Republic of the Church
which has lasted for nineteen centuries, and will continue till time shall
be no more; which counts her millions of children in every clime; which
numbers her heroes and her martyrs by the thousand; which associates you
with the Apostles and Saints. "You are no more strangers and foreigners,
but you are fellow-citizens with the Sai